SLAVONIC ORIGINS
The earliest signs of human activity in the basins of the Vistula and Oder date back to about 100 thousand BC. Neanderthal hunters crossed the area, especially present-day southern Poland. The earliest settlements of Homo Sapiens in Poland go back to the Mesolithic Age (8 thousand - 5.5 thousand BC). These settlements were established by migrant peoples belonging to the Danubian Basin Culture.
With time (partly due to incursions by warrior tribes from Asia), the inhabitants of the present-day territories of Poland began to organise themselves into larger social groups and establish fortified strongholds. An example of this type of construction can be found in Biskupin (8th century BC), an island settlement surrounded by palisades, which had a population of around 1,000 -1,200 people.
Later, from the 6th century BC onwards, Poland became the target of raids by Scythian and Sarmatian tribes from the east, and Celtic and Germanic tribes from the west. Often the invaders would assimilate with the indigenous inhabitants and settle in the conquered territories. Alongside the destruction, these invasions also brought the achievements of the civilised world and encouraged trade - the earliest traces of the "Amber Road", a trade route linking the Baltic Sea with Rome and the Mediterranean basin, date back to the 5th century BC.
The beginnings of statehood
In the mid-10th century the Piast dynasty, rulers of the Polanian tribe, adopted Christianity. The Vislanians had already established links with Christendom earlier. However, the Polanian Prince Mieszko decided that conversion to Christianity would raise his own and his country's status, not only at home - with a common religion for all the subject tribes, and supremacy for the anointed prince - but also in foreign affairs. Poland would join the civilised realms, and the German thrust to bring Christianity to the Slavs would be halted. The year 966, when Mieszko was baptised, is regarded as marking the origin of Poland as an independent, Christian, centralised state, following the model set up in Christian Europe.
Mieszko I and Boleslaw Chrobry (Boleslaus the Brave)
The reigns of Mieszko I (?-992) and his son Bolesław Chrobry (Boleslaus the Brave), mark the period when the Polish tribes were brought together in a united and internally well-knit realm which made an active contribution to European politics. Assisted by the ecclesiastical authorities, between 972 and 990 the principality of Poland grew, absorbing Pomerania, Lesser Poland (Polonia Minor), and Silesia by way of military conquest,
the pursuit of trade, marriage alliances, and the foundation of an administrative system. Most importantly, the new state gained a foothold on the international scene. The wars skilfully conducted by Mieszko and Boleslaus earned Poland not only new territories (the Strongholds of Czerwień and, temporarily, Moravia and Lusatia), but also the reputation of a power to be reckoned with even by the Holy Roman Emperor. The major success of early Piastian foreign policy was the Congress of Gniezno (1000), during which the Emperor Otto III recognised Boleslaus as the principal ally for his plan to unite Europe under the imperial rule, and approved the erection of an independent Polish metropolitan see, as well as Boleslaus' subsequent coronation (1025).
THE JAGIELLONS
For the next two hundred years the Jagiellonian dynasty ruled the joint state of Poland-Lithuania, some of the vastest dominions in Europe. At one point in the late 15th century, alongside Poland-Lithuania, Bohemia and Hungary also had a Jagiellonian monarch.
Growth of Parliament and privileges for the nobility
By ancient custom the kings of Poland convened general assemblies called sejm, attended by legati terrestres, representatives of the noble or equestrian (knights') estate. By the late 15th century under King Jan I Olbracht (Ioannes Albertus, John Albert) a national assembly had emerged consisting of King, Senate (or Royal Council), and the House of the legati terrestres regionally elected in public assemblies (sejmiki), and a few representatives for the richest cities. It was one of the oldest European parliaments.
As of the reign of Louis of Hungary and the Koszyce Privileges of 1374, kings of Poland solicited the support of the politically and economically ascendant nobility by granting privileges, especially tax exemptions and the famous Neminem Captivabimus Nisi Jure Victum (We Shall Not Imprison Anyone Unless He Be Proved Guilty by the Law) statute of 1432, which predated the English Habeas Corpus Act by 256 years. These privileges gradually curtailed the monarch's prerogatives, culminating in the Nihil Novi statute (1505), which prevented the King from making any important decisions without the approval of Sejm.
Cultural advancement
The Jagiellonian period witnessed tremendous cultural advancement. Poland became one of the centres of the Renaissance.
Spectacular achievements in the arts and sciences were made under Kazimierz Jagiellończyk (Casimir the Jagiellonian) and Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund I). These were the times of Jan Długosz's Annals of the Kingdom of Poland, the works of sculptor Veit Stoss, Italian humanist writer "Callimachus" (Filippo Buonaccorsi), and the writings of native-born literati like Mikołaj Rej, Jan Kochanowski, and Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium,1543 - itself a revolution in the sciences - reflected the high standards in Polish scholarship under the Jagiellons. Its luminaries made Polish the language of the educated in this part of Europe.
The Polish Reformation
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Poland was a country open to new religious trends.
Unlike other European countries, there were no religious wars here. Not only could heterodox religionists find sanctuary here, they were also protected by the kings and lords of Poland. As a result, culture and scholarship experienced an influx of new ideas and literary works, building up an image of Poland as a country of toleration. This was particularly true as regards the Warsaw Compact, ratified in 1573, which gave Protestants equal rights with Catholics. The last Jagiellonian monarch, Zygmunt August (Sigismundus Augustus), said in Sejm, "I do not rule your consciences."
Not surprisingly contemporaries and later generations called the Jagiellonian era, especially the
Kingdom and Grand Duchy
As with the Piasts, the Jagiellonian dynasty became extinct through lack of a male heir (1572). In 1569 King Sigismundus Augustus effected the statutory union of Poland and Lithuania, up till then joined by a personal union. Henceforth the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania would be an elective monarchy, with the entire noble (equestrian) estate enjoying the right to elect their king.
THE FIRST ELECTIVE MONARCHS
The first royal election was held in the spring of 1573. The contenders to the throne of Poland included Ivan IV the Terrible Tsar of Muscovy, Archduke Ernest Habsburg, and Henri de Valois, brother of Charles IX of France. Henri won, but turned out a bad choice. He did not understand the country he was expected to rule and as soon as he learnt of his brother's death, he fled from Poland after only four months, to assume the throne of France as Henri III. After a new interregnum lasting a year, the nobility elected Anna, sister of Sigismundus Augustus, to be the new monarch. She was required to marry the successful candidate in the royal election, Stephen Batory (István Báthory) of Transylvania. Batory proved an energetic ruler. After a swift campaign, he successfully conclued the conflict with Russia for the contested territory of Livonia. He also managed to put internal affairs in order and strengthen the royal powers.
The Swedish dynasty on the Polish throne
The election after Batory's death went to the grandson of Sigismund I, Sigismund Vasa of Sweden, the first king of the Vasa dynasty on the throne of Poland. The Vasas - Sigismund III, Vladislaus IV, and Ioannes Casimirus (John Casimir) - ruled until 1668; and although they maintained Poland's status as an esteemed European power, they also entangled the kingdom in a series of wars, failed to prevent a civil war in Ukraine and tolerated the growth of the magnates' power.
NAPOLEONIC TIMES
The turn of the 19th century brought hopes for the restoration of independence, in the wake of Napoleon's military triumphs. The Polish Legions formed in Italy fought in many of Napoleon's battles (Trebia, Hohenlinden, Marengo).
Meanwhile Prince Adam Czartoryski, then Russia's foreign minister, was planning the restoration of the Polish state under the rule of the Russian Tsar Alexander I. This split into supporters of co-operation with the West and with the East lasted for decades and affected Polish history on numerous occasions. Napoleon did partly fulfil the hopes vested in him. After defeating Austria and Prussia, he created the Duchy of Warsaw out of part of the former Polish territories. He helped the Poles to raise their own army, under Prince Józef Poniatowski, nephew of the last king. The Polish army fought in all the campaigns and major battles, including Borodino and Leipzig, where Prince Poniatowski was drowned. However, the disastrous invasion of Russia (1811-12) and Napoleon's downfall changed the fate of Poland and indeed all of Europe. The Duchy of Warsaw was replaced by a Kingdom of Poland attached to Russia by personal union (the Tsar of Russia was made "King of Poland"), with its own constitution, sejm, army and treasury. The remaining lands were put in a Grand Duchy of Poznań under Prussian rule, and the Free City of Cracow, "supervised" by the 3 partitioning powers.
FIGHTING FOR INDEPENDENCE
The Poles did not abandon the hope of full independence. Already in 1830, on the surge of general European protest against the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, an armed insurrection, the November Uprising, broke out in the Russian Partition on 29 November 1830. The Tsar was dethroned and a National Government was created. Despite initial success, it ended in failure. The Kingdom was dismantled and put directly under the Russian Empire, and the economic and political concessions of 1815-1830 were lost. Sejm was disbanded.
Subsequent uprisings brought more disasters. One occurred in Cracow in 1846. The authorities put it down with the help of Polish peasants, and the Free City was annexed by the Austrian Empire. Another uprising in 1848, in Greater Poland, was crushed as well. During the Revolution of 1848, Poles were present wherever battles were fought against the the Holy Alliance: in Italy (under the leadership of Adam Mickiewicz and Wojciech Chrzanowski), Germany (Wiktor Heltman, Ludwik Mierosławski, and Franciszek Sznajde), Austria (Józef Bem) and in Hungary (Bem, Henryk Dembiński, Józef Wysocki). In the debate whether to fight or co-operate with the aggressors, the idea of an uprising carried the day again in the 1860s. Yet again the January Uprising (1863-1865) met with a defeat so severe that the vision of restoration by military means was subsequently shelved for many years.
THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
The First World War brought the solution to the Polish Question. Józef Piłsudski, Commander of the Polish Legions, put forward a political concept calling for a pro-Austrian orientation, which proved to be the most effective. He put his bets on Germany and Austria-Hungary beating Russia, and then in turn being defeated by France and Great Britain. Then, out of the ruins of the partitioning powers, an independent Poland would rise. This was indeed what happened: after the Revolution of 1917 Russia withdrew from the War, and Germany and the Austrian Empire capitulated. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended the Great War, sanctioned Poland's independence. By October 1918 Polish forces were already disarming German and Austrian units. On 7 November, the first Polish interim government was created under the leadership of the Socialist Ignacy Daszyński. Following Piłsudski's return (he had been arrested by the Germans in July 1917), the army and the interim government deferred to the Commander of the Legions. Piłsudski was appointed National Commander (Naczelnik).
NEW COMUNIST RULE
With the help of Polish Communists, the Soviet authorities quickly managed to crush all the overt opposition. Combatants who were members of the AK ("Home Army") and WiN ("Freedom and Independence") independent undergound resistance organisations were killed, deported to Russia, or sent to prisons or labour camps; their leaders were imprisoned in Moscow and tried in a showcase trial. A condition was formally set by the Western Allies that democratic elections be held, but members and associates of Mikołajczyk's PSL independent peasants' party were arrested, intimidated, and murdered. The results of a referendum of 30 June 1946 and parliamentary elections in January 1947 were rigged. Mikołajczyk, Deputy Prime Minister of the Interim Government, fled the country.
SOLIDARITY
The end of the "propaganda of success" period (as Gierek's decade was dubbed) came in 1980. An extremely strong wave of strikes engulfed Poland after another price increase, and the working people of Gdańsk organised a trade union strike committee. This time the Party did not resort to violence, and the subsequent negotiations resulted in the signing of the August Agreements (31 August 1980) and the emergence of Solidarity, an independent trade union organisation, headed by a Gdańsk shipyard worker, Lech Wałęsa. Edward Gierek was forced to resign, and replaced by Stanisław Kania and later, as of October 1981, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. Events in the Catholic Church also prompted the atmosphere of freedom and change, and the rising courage of the working people. In 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cracow, was elected Pope, assumed the name John Paul II, and 8 months later made a pilgrimage to his home country. The millions who participated in the meetings with the Pope experienced a religious rebirth and an increased sense of social identity. They realised their collective strength. Solidarity quickly became a widespread social movement uniting over 9 million members, including a large number from the ruling Communist Party. It was an unprecedented phenomenon in the entire Soviet bloc, essentially irreconcilable with the political system. Despite the fact that, in general, it did not express any revolutionary political goals and only called for the "rationalisation of the existing system", it enjoyed widespread support of political and trade-union circles in the West, and became an inspiration to the independent milieux within the Communist bloc. A symbolic event in 1980, also for the Solidarity movement, was the award of the Nobel Prize for literature to an émigré Polish poet, Czesław Miłosz.
MARTIAL LAW
In the face of economic crisis and the growing influence of Solidarity, and under pressure from the USSR, General Jaruzelski decided on a violent solution. On 13 December 1981 Martial Law was introduced in the People's Republic of Poland. Several thousand opposition campaigners were interned, and strikes were crushed with the help of the army and special riot police units. On 16 December nine miners were killed in the Wujek Coal Mine. Many members of the opposition and underground trade-unionists were sentenced to prison terms, others were forced to emigrate. Martial Law, which was officially lifted in July 1983, had not resolved Poland's problems. The Polish economy still could not emerge from the crisis; opposition against the government did not diminish, but was kept up by the Pope's subsequent pilgrimages, in 1983 and 1987 and award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Lech Wałęa, Solidarity's leader (1983), none the less Solidarity structures had significantly weakened, and many succumbed to intimidation. Nevertheless the trade union continued to operate illegally under Wałęsa's leadership, which was reflected in the regular publication and distribution of several hundred clandestine periodicals and bulletins. Solidarity campaigners received support from the Church, which kept its strong position in society. By 1983 the scale of the repressions as well as of the opposition activities was relatively moderate compared to the earlier phase.
THE ROUND TABLE
In 1988, PZPR Communist party leaders started negotiations with representatives of the then unofficial opposition. In the early months of 1989, as a result of the Round Table talks, an agreement was signed calling for partially free elections to the Parliament. The opposition was to have 35% of the seats in Sejm, and an entirely free election to Senate. The election held on 4 June 1989 brought a landslide victory to Solidarity. It was clear that the Communist Party would not be able to continue to govern in the face of such massive opposition from the people. Although the Parliament returned, dubbed the "contractual Parliament", elected Gen. Jaruzelski President of the Republic, the office of Prime Minister was entrusted to a Solidarity candidate, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who had been chief adviser to the Gdańsk strike committee in 1980. On 29 July 1989 the Parliament changed the country's name and constitution. The People's Republic of Poland became a thing of the past. The age of the Third Republic of Poland commenced. The events in Poland precipitated the fall of the entire Communist block. The Yalta arrangement collapsed. The Round Table compromise and peaceful transfer from the Communist system to a democratic system were possible thanks to the fundamental changes in the policy of the USSR, which in the period between 1986 and 1988 began to implement the ideas of glasnost and perestroika - political and economic openness to the outside world.
POLAND's WAY TO EUROPEAN UNION
Poland initiated the reform of its political system and economy in 1989. In this new situation, a return to the West, as embodied in the form of the EU and NATO, became realistic. Already on 19th September 1989 Poland signed the agreement for trade and trade co-operation with the (then) European Community (EC). That agreement was not only the basis for further relations but also a starting point for future negotiations on the subject of associating with EC. Such an intention was expressed by Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki in his speech in the European Parliament in February 1990.
Slightly later in June 1991 Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Krzysztof Skubiszewski declared in his expose in Polish Parliament that Poland was determined to become a member of the European Community.
On 19th May 1990 Poland officially applied for a beginning of negotiations for an agreement of associating, and the negotiations began in December 1990. After eleven months on 16th December 1991 the Polish government signed the Europe Agreement which established an associate relationship between the EC and the Republic of Poland.
The Europe Agreement set out the legal grounds for the pursuit and implementation of economic, political, scientific, and cultural union. The agreements signed with the EC, which at this time was preparing for its transformation into the European Union (EU), initiated Poland's process of European integration. The Europe Agreement came into force on 1st February 1994 (its III part on the mutual trade relations came into force earlier on 1st March 1992).
Despite the fact that the EC very early on signed a range of association and customs agreements with Poland, the Agreement was in practice treated as a completely new entity. It included resolutions on political dialogue, obligations related to the narrowing of the gap between the association states and EC legislative models, as well as guidelines governing co-operation in the area of culture.
The EC gave its consent to the Agreement foreword containing an additional point: "Poland's ultimate aim is membership of the Community." In this way the Polish partner established that the aim of the Agreement was the creation of frameworks for Poland's gradual integration into the Community.
The most important from Poland's point of view was that as a result of diplomatic interventions by the states of the Visegrád Group, the European Council decided at its Copenhagen summit in June 1993 that: "the associate member states from Central and Eastern Europe, if they so wish, will become members of the EU. In order to achieve this, however, they must fulfill the appropriate conditions." These became known as the Copenhagen criteria, or simply, membership criteria.
The Copenhagen criteria laid down the following EU membership requirements:
1. That candidate countries achieve stable institutions that guarantee democracy, legality, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.
2. That candidate countries have a working market economy, capable of competing effectively on EU markets.
3. That candidate countries are capable of accepting all the membership responsibilities, political, economic and monetary.
Another important stage on Poland's way to EU took place at the Luxembourg summit in 1997, when the EU accepted the Commission's opinion to invite several Central and Eastern European states (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus) to start talks on their accession to the EU. The preliminary condition for the inauguration of negotiations was maintenance of the criteria by the countries operating within the Copenhagen framework.
In 1999 EU made another decision on the introduction of the access negotiations with four next candidate countries: Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Malta.
The negotiation process started on 31st March 1998, when the first sitting of the International Accession Conference took place. After the meeting, screening sessions began to determine the extent to which Polish law was in accordance with community law, followed by the two parties developing position papers for each negotiating position.
The opening of negotiations in given areas signified that the European Council has granted the European Commission the relevant mandate to conduct talks with the candidate states. After the final agreement negotiations were temporarily closed. In the final phase of all the negotiations their results took the form of entries in the accession treaty.
Poland (with other candidate countries) finished the accession negotiations in December 2002. Than the Accession Treaty was signed in Athens on 16th April 2003. After the ratification of that Treaty, Poland and other 9 countries became the members of EU on 1st May 2004.
The question arises as to what this new, enlarged, deeper and more open Europe will be like. The answers will be supplied by all participants in the process. After all the demands that it is necessary to meet affect all the parties concerned.
SOURCE:www.poland.gov.pl
